Improvement in burial-cases



Uivirnn STATES PATENT." Y, OFFICE.

JOHN L. LOVETT, JOHN WIPPICH, AND JAMES WOOD, OF SALEM, MASS.

IMPROVEMENT IN BURIAL-CASES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 52,865, dated February 27, 1866.

To all lwhom 'it mayconcewt:

Be it known that we, J. L. LOVETT, JOHN WIPPICH, and JAMES WOOD, all of Salem, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Coftns or Burial-Gases; and we do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of our invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

The invention relates to the construction of `cofiins or burial caskets or cases, and has for its object the better preservation of the same from injury by decay and other causes than is obtained in the present form.

In the manufacture of common cofiins the well-known practice is to use acover and alid formed ofsin gie thickness of board and screwed down upon the top of the side and end pieces. In depositing a coffin of this form in the ground the weight ofthe superincumbent earth upon the cover and lid soon breaks them through, their width being so great that they crush in or split along the center from want of support, this injury being accelerated (if it is not Aimmediately effected by the weight of the earth when first thrown upon the coffin) by decay or the saturation of the cover induced by contact with the earth. To remedy this defect we place under the contiguous edges of the lid and covera cross-piece or supportlet into the sides of the coffin or casket, and sustaining the lid and cover at their weakest points, this support being so applied that it maybe removed for placing the body in the coffin, and being, if advisable, attached to and so as to form part of the cover. It is this construction that. constitutes the invention, and which is shown embodied in the coffin represented by the drawings,wherein Figure l shows aplan; Fig. 2,a longitudinal vertical section,and Fig. 5 acrosssection through the cross-piece or support.

a denotes the sides, b the bottom, and cthe cover or top, of the coffin. d isthelid, hinged to the cover in the usual manner. e is the cross-piece or support, extending under the cover and lid at the joint between them and across from side to side, it being at its opposite ends let into mortises in the sides a, as seen in Figs. l and 3, and being either attached permanently to or `so as to form part of the cover, or made and used independently from the same, as may be deemed desirable. By making a hole, f, through the lid and cover the upper surface of this support serves as a rest for vthe plate g, which in this manner is brought below the upper surface of the lid or cover.

1n placing cofflns one upon the other in tombs the name-plates upon the upper surfaces are oftenl removed by contact of the bottom of the overlying coffin; but by placing the plate upon the support-piece, as shown, it will be obvious that it is cftectually preserved from such'contact.

The support may be used fora likeness, and an opening made through the lid in such manner as not only to enable the picture to be seen when the lid is turned down, but to bring the opening over the name-plate when the lid is turned back, thus enabling both the picture and the plate to be seen both when the lid is closed and when it is open. This construct-ion is shown at A.

We claiml. The supporte, placed under the lid or cover and let into the sides, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The employment of the upper surface of this support for attachment of a plate, suhstantially as shown and described.

3. Constructing the lid with an opening in such manner that such opening shall come, respectively, over a plate placed upon the support when the lid is closed and over a plate `placed upon the cover when the lid is thrown back, substantially as described.

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands this 13th day of January, A. D.

JOHN L. LOVETT. JOHN WIPPIGH. JAMES WOOD. Witnesses:

FRANCIS GOULD, J. B. CROSBY. 

